A Mother's Role
by theicingandcherryontop
Summary: Uzumaki Kushina was not only Naruto's mother. She was a jounin of Konoha, a trusted friend of Uchiha Mikoto, and the beloved wife of the Fourth Hokage. How many people would have turned out differently had the Uzumaki pigheaded yet optimistic spunk not puttered for a decade while Naruto grew up but rather blazed brightly in everyone's favourite Red Hot Habanero?
1. Prologue

Prologue:

Kushina never could quite decide whether October 10th was the best or worst day of her life. As the day she finally was able to hold her precious baby it should by all rights have been undoubtedly the best, but everything that transpired afterwards made it so that she could never look back on the day with the joy that it deserved.

And to think it had started out so perfectly! Okay, so she didn't really picture being dragged down the street past her friends to a top-secret location inside a barrier when dreaming of becoming a mother, but discounting the secrecy everything had been perfect! She'd seen Mikoto for the first time in months, met little Sasuke-chan, given birth with her husband by her side the whole time, and laid eyes on the little baby she had been waiting to meet for eight excruciating months.

If Kushina ever saw that masked man again, she would teach him why the men of Konoha universally feared her as the Red Hot Habanero dattebane! How dare he ruin everything!

It was like some kind of nightmare. Everything had been so perfect, then there was screams from the midwives and her little baby was in the arms of a masked lunatic. The following moments were nothing but pure chaos, where she was too exhausted by the difficult labour to do anything but watch in horror while her husband was forced to abandon her to rescue their child.

The masked man had some kind of strange jutsu that connected distant locations through a bizarre intermediary space. Before Kushina could do more than recoil she was sucked into the man's _eye_, of all things, and spat out miles away from the birthing location. This was not the first time she was kidnapped, nor even the second, but it was certainly the first time someone had been able to spirit her away quickly enough to restrain her and draw out the Kyuubi.

And for what? "To destroy Konoha."

Kumo had wanted her for her large chakra capacity and suitability to become a jinchuuriki when most of their hosts had failed and gone on mad rampages. Iwa had wanted her in order to blackmail their accursed enemy the Yellow Flash. Kiri had simply seen her as a last remnant of a neighbouring village they had destroyed in the war for their sealing prowess and too dangerous to be allowed to remain in enemy hands. Suna, she suspected, merely had been testing how Konoha would respond to having one of their jounin detained in face of an impending peace treaty and had not chosen her for any special reason.

Never before had anyone targeted Kushina for the express purpose of harming her village, nor had any of her kidnappers known she was a jinchuuriki – though the Kumo-nin had their suspicions. Certainly none of them had been well-informed enough to know her strength would be at an all-time low after childbirth not only due to the gruelling labour itself but also the strain of keeping a seal in place simultaneously. And _definitely_ none of her kidnappers had been well-informed enough of her private life to find out her due date.

She wanted to fight. She wanted to draw the Kyuubi back into her body where it was meant to be and pummel that man so hard that that creepy mask became inseparable flecks in his bloody skin. However it was not to be, for she could not even stand. She could not defend herself. She could not defend her family. And once again, she could not defend her village.

All she could do was rest on her cot beside her baby and worry while her husband was out protecting the village. Never had Kushina felt more useless in her life, the desperate _take care_ lingering on her lips and the confident _I'll be back soon_ echoing in her ears. Greetings given every day but never before hanging in the air with a sense of _promise_, of a promise that she wished more than anything would be kept.

Naruto settled down beside her, asleep and oblivious to his mother's distress and the danger his father was placing himself in. Kushina nuzzled him close to her, all too reminded of how he had been snatched from her side mere minutes before. She was not strong enough to defend him, not now after giving birth and nearly dying from the Kyuubi extraction. She only hoped the masked man did not return. How was Minato faring? Which one was he battling right now, the masked man or the Kyuubi? She heard roars and crashes far off into the distance, but could not even go see out a window what was happening in Konoha far away.

She lay like that for minutes, mere minutes stretched into eternities by worry, before suddenly her world was a flash of yellow, strong arms around her abdomen, and bestial roaring from behind. The momentary peace was shattered in sprays of wooden splinters as the hut she had been in was destroyed and she and her child whisked to safety.

She knew what to do. She'd been trained on how to restrain a rampaging bijuu since she had caught the Uzumaki clan elders' attention as a child. Screwing up every last scrap of chakra remaining in her, chains shot out from Kushina's body and pinned the Kyuubi to the ground.

She turned to Minato, breathless from the effort, and began to explain how she'd hold the fox down and drag it to its death with her when Minato cut her off, panic and sadness written clearly across his face. "Kushina, save your strength. You need to focus completely on detaining the Kyuubi, even if just for a little while longer. I have an idea, but I need you to buy me time."

"What… idea…"

"There's no time to explain, Kushina, please!" He was looking at her so desperately, so desolately. Kushina wanted to argue, to demand he tell her everything, but he was right. There was no time for explanations and the Kyuubi was difficult to detain at the best of times, never mind when she had been brought within a hair's breadth of getting acquainted with Death.

She had no choice but to believe in Minato, that he knew what he was doing. Placing all her last hope in him, Kushina nodded.

Everything after that was a blur of the Kyuubi straining at her chains and desperately straining back in a deadly game of tug-of-war with the most powerful of the bijuu. She could hear Naruto crying in the background and Minato softly chanting the name of some jutsu, but she couldn't afford to look away from the agitated monster in front of her. To contrast the Kyuubi, towering over her, was afforded the perfect view of everything that was happening and evidently did not like it. There was a horrible moment where he swiped an enormous clawed paw past her and towards where she guessed Minato and Naruto were, and it was only sheer desperation and willpower that allowed Kushina to squeeze one last burst of chakra out to restrain the foreleg.

She had depleted all her chakra. In a minute she would die from chakra exhaustion and the fox would be set loose. She had failed; she couldn't protect anyone any longer.

_Please, Minato, hurry_.

Blackness filled her vision and the chains slacked, losing their burden, falling to the ground and dissipating. The ground rose to make the acquaintance of her head and stars filled her vision. The Third Hokage's face swam in front of hers, lips moving in words she could not hear above the buzzing in her ears, and a heavy green glow was placed on her chest. The world blurred around her in nauseating motion and faded into and out of black, and going to white. The smell of antiseptic filled her nostils and brisk voices snapped out commands she was too far gone to understand.

Until at last the black won and Kushina knew no more.

* * *

><p>**

*This is an AU of what the _Naruto_ world would have been like if Minato had just gone ahead with the sealing instead of wasting time explaining everything to Kushina. Seriously, with a giant demon fox straining at your wife's last ditch effort to restrain it, that was _NOT_ the time for a family argument!

**/


	2. While Sleeping Beauty Slumbers

Chapter 1: While Sleeping Beauty Slumbers

"Her heart beat and neural activity have stabilized, but there are no signs of regaining consciousness. It's difficult to estimate how long she will remain comatose as the coma appears to be primarily induced by severe chakra exhaustion. These types of comas can range anywhere from several weeks to many years, and some people never awake. I'm afraid the only thing we can do is wait."

The newly reinstated Third Hokage wearily thanked the medic-nin and asked to be alerted if there were any changes in Kushina's condition before turning and sweeping down the hall of the hospital. He stopped every few feet to talk to patients and family, the surviving victims of the Kyuubi attack. His smile was strained and sad and the platitudes he offered were ones he had spoken far too many times to far too many people. Dark circles reached under his eyes and he could actually feel his hair turning grey.

The last 79 hours had been beyond stressful. Never had he imagined when his successor left him in charge of the village while Kushina gave birth that he'd be forced to deal with a rampaging bijuu and wind up coming out of retirement. In all honesty he was too old for the job and should by all rights have been an advisor rather than the decision maker, but the other candidates did not even bear thinking about. Opinions swung between Orochimaru and Danzou, and – as fond as he was of them both personally – he knew that they did not possess the Will of Fire that had been passed onto him by the Shodaime and Nidaime. Unable to think of any better alternative, Hiruzen had resumed his position until someone from the younger generation grew into a suitable Hokage candidate.

With only five total hours of sleep since the night of the attack and running on caffeine from green tea, the Hokage had overseen rescue teams, emergency rationing, temporary shelter set ups, assurances to the public that everything was over, the retrieval of and identification the bodies of the dead, requests from the elders to have a meeting, plans for the mass funeral and memorial, plans for a new orphan quarter to deal with their sudden influx of parentless young citizens, sending Danzou's ROOT operatives to Kushina's birthing location to find out what went wrong, complaints from the public, more requests from the elders to have a meeting, messages to Konoha's allies for aid, messages to all major villages that Konoha was still standing and _would_ make a complete recovery, assurances to the worried Daimyo that his military still existed and he did not need to start outsourcing his requests, _more_ requests from the elders to have a meeting, organizing clean-up operations, and many more things that he could now not even remember doing.

With everything urgent dealt with, Hiruzen had no choice but to agree to meet with the elders. He had hoped that Kushina would be conscious by this time to report what had happened to set the Kyuubi free, however he could not postpone this meeting any longer. Unfortunately, Danzou's subordinates had not found out much from the secret barrier, and the security breach was unlikely to be resolved merely by arguing over the little information they had – no matter what his three friends might think to the contrary.

Ten minutes later saw Hiruzen, Danzou, Koharu, and Homura seated in their private meeting room, the enlarged photos of all four Hokage staring down at them from their wooden frames. Hiruzen avoided looking at Minato's photo and quashed the memory of telling him that a Hokage did not smile for photos. Silence reigned as the four waited for someone to begin the meeting and address the white elephant in the room. The other three were eying him, as though it was part of his job as the Hokage to state the obvious reason why they had sent him so many memos requesting they hold this meeting.

Well, the discussion wasn't going to go anywhere if he didn't. "There are too many unanswered questions surrounding this recent Kyuubi incident."

"I thought that Kushina's seal must have broken," Koharu immediately jumped in, having waited for the opening of the discussion. "But that doesn't explain why Biwako and the ANBU were killed."

"Which means there's someone behind this," Homura added, finishing the summation of the reason behind their meeting.

Danzou suggested slyly, "Like someone from the Uchiha?"

"On what basis are you saying that?" Because of Danzou's paranoia over one of the Uchiha hypnotizing the Kyuubi, the entire clan had been delegated to guarding the civilians during the attack. What this meant when there was not a giant monster fox liable to kill everyone was that, in addition to funeral arrangements and missives to foreign nations and all the other necessities he'd been dealing with without rest for the last three days, Uchiha Fugaku had made his way into the Hokage office a grand total of eleven times.

After listening to endless complaints about how the Uchiha had been shuffled to the rear during the attack and demands to know why that was and what Hiruzen planned to do about this treatment, he was really not in the mood for anymore of Danzou's nonsense about how the entire clan was cursed and liable to turn on the village at the drop of a hat.

"If the Kyuubi had just broken free it would have gone wild," Danzou replied. Though really that was only restating Homura's point and had nothing to do with the Uchiha clan. "Without someone to control it, it couldn't have caused this incident."

"Hence, the sharingan," mused Homura.

"The Uchiha can control the Kyuubi with their dojutsu."

"But for what purpose?"

"To regain their position of power within Konoha."

"I see…"

Hiruzen could not believe this. They did not have a shred of proof that the Uchiha were involved! Though it was true that Uchiha Madara had been able to control the Kyuubi, none of the current generation of Uchiha possessed the Mangekyou Sharingan. Not to mention Madara was hardly the only person who had ever controlled a bijuu: the Kumo jinchuuriki Bee had reputedly gained control of his, the First Hokage had been able to control all the bijuu, and even Kushina to an extent could control the Kyuubi with her chains. The perpetrator of this incident didn't even need to be able to control the Kyuubi, they only really needed the ability to extract it and teleport it to Konoha. It was difficult, but hardly something that could only be achieved via hypnosis with the sharingan. In fact, as far as he knew, the sharingan didn't possess the ability of teleporting bijuu halfway across countries and through barriers, so that was one major flaw in Danzou's theory.

Nonetheless, his three advisors seemed to have come to their decision about what had happened. Unable to stay silent, he interjected, "But that's just pure conjecture!"

Danzou continued as if Hiruzen had not spoken. "We must increase our surveillance of the Uchiha clan. We shall keep them under 24-hour watch."

Hiruzen did not want to think how Fugaku – so offended to have his clan shunted to the rear in an emergency scenario – would respond when he discovered this violation of privacy based on nothing but conjecture. "That's bound to incite them unnecessarily!"

"Then let the ANBU do it secretly," was Danzou's unconcerned response.

And no matter how he argued against it, the three had their minds made up: the Uchiha were ruled as the primary suspects and were to be placed under constant surveillance. As Hokage he had the right to overrule their decision; however experience had taught him that when forbidding Danzou to do something he would pretend to acquiesce and then do it anyways the moment Hiruzen's back was turned. At least this way he would have access to the same information and know what Danzou was up to.

He could only pray that the Uchiha clan did not discover this, lest their fears became self-fulfilling.

* * *

><p>"Excuse me, may I ask why not?" Uchiha Mikoto would be tempted to think she had merely misheard the Hokage, had he not adopted a troubled expression of tired sympathy. "I was not aware that either Kushina or Minato had any relatives to take the babe in?"<p>

The mid afternoon sun shone cheerfully through the large window into the Hokage office, unhampered by a single cloud and bringing unseasonal warmth. A perfect autumn day which belied the tense atmosphere between the aging man seated at the desk and the deceptively soft looking young woman standing opposite him.

The Hokage shuffled the papers on his desk, not quite meeting her eyes. "For the time being I've assigned an ANBU watch on the child. Seeing as the public opinion on Naruto is quite… volatile at the moment, it's best for everyone if the child is under guard until he is old enough to defend himself."

The twenty-seven-year-old retired jounin was nonplussed. "I assure you, my clan is well equipped to deal with rash ninja too mediocre to understand the concept of fuinjutsu and irate civilians who disregard the law. Some might even say we make a living out of doing so." A bold thing to say to the Hokage, but Mikoto's temper was beginning to fray. "With all due respect, sir, you cannot expect ANBU to know how to raise a baby. It is hardly the sort of criteria they are selected based on, is it? He'd be much better off with a family. I've already raised one baby and I have another right now, it's not like I have no experience dealing with them."

There. There was no way he could refute her argument. If it was security he was concerned about then the heart of the Military Police Force was just as secure as ANBU Headquarters. If it was Naruto's well-being, then she was far more qualified to handle children than the broken assassins of ANBU.

But the Hokage was not swayed. Indeed, had he been any other man she would have described the look on his lined face as beseeching, as though willing her to accept that she would not be granted temporary custody of Naruto and leave him in peace. "But surely it's too much to ask of you, as you already have your own baby and a small child to care for. The medics are uncertain when, if ever, Kushina will regain consciousness. It is a big commitment."

"If I did not think myself capable I would not have offered," Mikoto fought to keep her voice calm and level. Kunoichi are the _uchiwa_ that feeds the fire, her mother's voice echoed in her mind. Calm, deliberate, and steady. We do not burn, we direct the flames. "Kushina is my friend; I cannot stand by and allow her child to be cared for by ANBU when it is perfectly within my power to look after him myself."

It was so maddening! Her perceptive Uchiha eyes could _see_ the sympathy in the Hokage's aged eyes, could read his desire to agree in every line of his careworn face, and yet what he said was, "It is understandable that you want to help your friend, but given the circumstance I'm afraid I must oppose. I'm very sorry, Mikoto, but it's for the best."

Given _what_ circumstances? Her family was more than able to protect, support, and care for an extra child, even the widely despised jinchuuriki. She was certainly a more suitable option than the alternative ANBU! If Kushina could send her spirit from her unconscious body to hear this conversation then she'd have started yelling already, long red locks flying upwards like she was possessed by a demon and eyes glinting in unholy rage.

Mikoto didn't want to believe it, but the only thing she could think of that the Hokage might object to was her clan name. Fugaku was constantly in a foul temper these days, lips drawn into a perpetual frown, due to the perceived slight to the clan during the Kyuubi Attack. She tried to lighten his mood, joking that his face would get stuck like that if he kept scowling, but now she wondered if there wasn't more truth to her prickly husband's concerns than mere offended pride.

Mikoto assessed the Hokage. He wasn't going to give her custody, she could see it now. No matter how valid her points or how much he might privately agree with her, it would give him too much political trouble to cede Konoha's jinchuuriki over to the Uchiha. Were things really so bad between the clan and the village? Fugaku's predecessor as chief of the police force had retired just before the end of the war so Mikoto was still rather new to politics and most of her experience was gathered under the Fourth, not the Third, Hokage.

She'd known Minato ever since they were in the Academy. He had been the perfect Hokage; so open and honest that even Fugaku never worried about being double crossed or undermined. Minato could be ruthless to foes, but he put his complete trust in his village, even if it was unwarranted. It was so like Minato to ask that Naruto be revealed as a jinchuuriki and have faith that the people of Konoha would accept him despite this, because Minato believed in his allies. If it was Minato sitting across the desk from her she'd be told the real reason her request was being denied, not fobbed off with false assurances that it was for the best.

More than likely, if it was Minato her request would not have been denied in the first place.

The Third was an unknown factor to Mikoto, and one that she was quickly deciding she did not much care for. She'd seen him often enough for mission briefing to know that he was a kind man, but he was also a shinobi. Was he merely bowing to pressure from Danzou – of whom she had heard more than she ever wanted to know from Fugaku – or did he suspect her clan of treachery as well? What was hidden behind that mask of grandfatherly geniality?

In either case, she was wasting her time here. Swallowing failure like ash in her lungs, Mikoto bowed to the Hokage. "I see. I shall take my leave then."

With a click of black heels Mikoto made her way out of the Hokage Tower with her head held proudly, almost defiant as she dared her lurking political adversaries to accuse her of their suspicions to her face, rather than skulking in shadows and vetoing every request of her clan out of paranoia. Anger and sadness simmered within her. Why, when they had done nothing to deserve this treatment, was such a thing happening?

Itachi was perched on a bench outside the Hokage Tower, murmuring soothingly to a mewling Sasuke wrapped lovingly in his short arms while he waited for her. On his face was a soft smile which she had once feared lost to the trauma he'd seen in the war. It's return was only a recent thing, at first a flickering at the corners of his lips when she would put Itachi's hand on her stomach to feel the baby kicking and then culminating when she handed the swaddled newborn Sasuke to her eldest to hold. He had taken him hesitantly, as though afraid of dropping him, and Mikoto and gently positioned Itachi's short arms to support the head and body. The sleeping newborn had stirred slightly as he was settled into his elder brother's arms and a smile spread across the baby's lips, crinkling his closed eyes. Entranced, she had watched as a second smile spread across the lips of her eldest child as though it were contagious. Much more tender than it had been before, it had been Itachi's first true smile in over a year. Mikoto had cried.

Even now when Itachi's smiles were becoming more common they never failed to fill her with a sense of relief. He began to hum quietly to the baby, a simply tune about a crow with seven children that she had once sung to him. He reached out to brush aside a fringe of dark hair from his brother's forehead and Sasuke caught his Itachi's finger with his stubby fingers, guiding their joined hands down to rest on his chest. The two boys sat peacefully like that, caught up in the safety of their own world as they waited for their mother to come take them home, where they would be well cared for and loved.

Mikoto felt her heart clench and suddenly had to blink rapidly to dispel tears before they formed. What if it had been the other way around? What if something happened to her and it were _her_ babies that were alone in the world? Would the Hokage refuse to let her friends care for them, instead depending on hardened killers, because of mere _politics_?

"Kaa-san?" Itachi had noticed her, his too perceptive eyes looking at her wide in concern. "Are you alright?"

_No_. "Of course." Itachi handed her Sasuke, who was too heavy for a five-year-old to carry for long distance. With her youngest held securely in one arm she took her eldest's small hand within hers. Itachi was still young enough to allow this, though only when his father was not around. Fugaku disapproved of shows of reliance in his progeny. "Would you mind if we paid a visit to the hospital before heading home? There's someone I'd like to see."

Itachi did not object, of course. She could not remember the last time he had rejected a suggestion and marvelled that in such a high-strung clan she'd somehow produced such a mellow, easygoing child. So she lingered outside the temporary infant orphan ward, gazing through the rectangular windows at a whiskered blond face that slept, unknowing that his father was dead and mother unable to care for him, that his caregivers would be more concerned with potential safety hazards and when their shift was over than his happiness and comfort. That outside the door from him stood a woman who perfectly able and willing to care for him but was not allowed to do so for reasons that didn't bear considering. That to her side stood a bright and kind little boy who even at such a young age was shaping up to be an uncommonly loving older brother and in her arms a baby not much older than him who could have been his companion as they grew and discovered the world together, but wouldn't be.

Then she stood in the doorway of room 509, where inside red haired spilled across white sheets like blood and tubes connected a too still body with beeping machines. It didn't even look like Kushina, because there's no way someone so full of life could lie so prone and dead-looking.

And silently, wretchedly, Mikoto whispered, as though in prayer, _Kushina._

_I'm sorry._

_I tried._

* * *

><p><em>**  
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*Some of the dialogue in here is taken from Naruto Shippuden episode 358

*_uchiwa_ is the Japanese word for the type of fan that the Uchiha use for their clan symbol.

*I was planning to have Kushina wake up in this chapter, then thought that since she'd literally been brought to the brink of death it was seriously unlikely she would wake up in a matter of days.

*The song I am imagining Itachi singing is called Nanatsu no Ko. If you are curious what it sounds like, you can listen to it at youtube dot com slash watch?v=KGMFylFBGgg. The translated lyrics are in the video description.

_**/_


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